The beginning creates expectations that sadly the rest of the album does not fulfill. The lyrics, though a bit one-dimentional (the brave crusader that goes out to punish the bad guys in the east, with every right in his side!), along with the great chorus, add to the total epicness of the song. The evocative intro, the captivating main riff, Biff's performance, the all guns blazing guitar solo, every element is in its right place. Production-wise, while not as polished and safe as Rock the Nations and Destiny would later be, it continues the shift in sound that was first heard on the previous Power and the Glory, which means it is quite further than the raw days of Wheels of Steel and Strong Arm of the Law and this fact doesn't help the songs at all, giving them a feeling of beeing weak, even in the moments when they are not!īut this is not apparent as a first impression, and that is of course because the LP starts (after the unnecessary intro) with the mighty Crusader! An all time metal classic, a huge epic, a staple live moment for nearly 40 years now. So they recruited a Crusader to help them on their quest! And let me say that while I understand the fixation with the american market from a financial point of view, I have never really understood why it is always (and I mean always!) accompanied by a really huge decrease in the quality of the released material! (See for example Rainbow, Queen, Scorpions, Whitesnake and the list goes on).Ĭrusader is not a bad album per se, but is surely worse than its predecessors and below the real potential of this legendary band. Or did they? Well America, the commercial holy grail of every european rock and metal band, was not conquered yet. They didn't have anything to prove to anyone.

By 1984, Saxon had already 5 studio albums, rating from 'really strong' to 'heavy metal masterpiece', and a legendary live album under their belt.

Crusader no remorse remastered